The Art of Modeling Jamaica Figure Drawing Retreat is a travel opportunity rich with arts and culture for artists who want to immerse themselves in figurative drawing and painting amongst tropical plein air scenes brimming with colorful Jamaican culture.  We will hold our first figure drawing retreat in Negril, Jamaica .
 

Included -Accommodations: We will be staying and figurative art making at an ocean cliff resort in cottages and suites with ocean and garden views where you can jump off the laddered cliffs into the azure blue ocean that you can see the sea floor of, or swim in the pool and soak in the hot tub.  Enjoy the onsite restaurant and bar seated under trellises of bougainvillea surrounded by tropical plants and twinkling lights. When night falls, hear the croaking of the tree frogs and crickets and reggae music coming from nearby yards. See the moon from a different perspective! Wake up to the sounds of the ocean and roosters.

 

Included -Four days of figurative art making opportunities in the plein air on the resort grounds in various locations for three hours each day with a Jamaican fine arts model posing for various lengths of time on cliff/oceanside grounds where we are staying. A different model each day. 

 
Included -Group excursion on a glass bottomed boat from the beach to Booby Cay Island, a small island off the coast.  On the ride there we will hover over coral reefs to see the giant sea stars, sand dollars and tropical fish.  We will dock on the island and and relax with a cold drink while a seafood dinner of fresh caught lobster or fish with roasted breadfruit drizzled with garlic oil is cooked for us over an open flame, and served with raw veggies.  Swim in the ocean, hike the island, and watch the pelicans fly overhead and dive for fish while waiting for your food to cook.
 
Included -Every day during figure drawing we will sample different local seasonal fruits such as ganep, soursop, sweetsop, June plum, jackfruit, pineapple, different varieties of bananas, grapefruit, tangerine, coconut and fresh sugar cane.  Jamaican “bun n’ cheese” and famous ginger “bulla cake” will also be served, along with fresh cucumber-ginger juice (by the way-the water here is safe to drink!) and rum punch.

Everything that we do is within walking or (very affordable and readily available) taxi distance.

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-Enjoy a certified Blue Mountain Coffee (perhaps the Jamaican way, with condensed milk) and try the national dish, ackee and saltfish with callaloo greens, dumplin, and green and ripe fried plantain breakfast at local mom & pop restaurants. -Watch the famous Cliff Divers diving off the cliffs and the trees on the cliffs at the famous Rick’s Café while sipping on a cocktail.

 

 -Visit 7 Mile Beach: has restaurants & bars sprinkled along the way/would make a good long walk on a white sand beautiful beach, while stopping for food, drinks & beachside shopping all along the way.  Find fresh squeezed sugar cane juice, cucumber juice and fresh coconut water & jelly that you drink straight out of the young coconut.  Fresh grilled jerk chicken and shrimp are readily available along the way. Buy a souvenir beach towel from a local vendor to use while here. Ganga is easy to obtain here, and smoking a spliff on the beach is not scorned. 

 

-Go out for free live reggae music played beachside/bar-side every Thursday night. 

 

-Partake in numerous touristy-activities in your own free time, such as riding on a bamboo raft down a crystal blue river while sipping on a cold Red Stripe, the official Jamaican beer, ATV riding or zip lining through tropical forests, horseback riding on the beach, touring rum estates, visiting waterfalls, stopping into art galleries, etc.

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The included details will all be arranged and coordinated by dual Jamaican/United States citizens, AOM Executive Director Ellen Allen and her husband Dr. Patrick Allen. Patrick, born and raised in Jamaica, immigrated to the US where he completed his education, earning a PhD in Molecular Biology under the tutelage of Nobel Prize Candidate, Dr. Harry Noller, then received a million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to research HIV at CU Boulder.  He went on to found The Black Biomedical Research Movement, a non-profit organization that aimed to decrease disparities in Black health and to encourage more Black people to enter careers in the biomedical sciences, working with Black celebrities to more widely spread the message.  He then founded the $27 million VC backed company Annai Systems, that developed a genomics data streamline platform designed to handle the complexities of next-generation sequencing data in the clinical, pharmaceutical, and research environments. Since retiring from the sciences, Patrick's current project is securing administratorship of several hundred acres of his family's land in the parish of Saint Thomas located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains where we envision implementing hiking trails, solar and agricultural farms, and an artistic compound, among other things (pst....soon seeking interested investors!).